REAL PEOPLE, REAL ISSUES

January 2009

January 31, 2009

E. Lynn Harris has wowed and seduced more than three million readers
with the wicked drama and undeniable heart in his novels. Now he’s back
with another winner sure to top the bestseller lists—a rip-roaring tale
of sex, secrets, betrayal . . and blackmail. Aldridge James
“AJ” Richardson is living the good life. He has a gorgeous town house
in always-flavorful New Orleans, plenty of frequent-flier miles from
jet-setting around the country on a whim, and an MBA—but he’s never had
to work a regular job. He owes it all to his longtime lover, Dray
Jones. Dray Jones the rich and famous NBA star. They fell in love in
college when AJ was hired to tutor Dray, a freshman on the basketball
team. But Dray knew if he wanted to make it to the big time, he must
juggle his public image and his private desires. Built on a deep,
abiding love, their hidden relationship sustains them both, but when
Dray’s teammates begin to ask insinuating questions about AJ, Dray puts
their doubts to rest by marrying Judi, a beautiful and ambitious woman.
Judi knows nothing about Dray’s “other life.” Or does she? In Basketball Jones,
E. Lynn Harris explores the consequences of loving someone who is
forced to conform to the rules society demands its public heroes
follow. Filled with nonstop twists and turns, it will keep readers
riveted from the first page to the last.AJ Richardson, the hero of Harris's raucous latest, has been the secret
boyfriend of NBA star Drayton Jones for seven years. AJ is only too
happy to keep their relationship under wraps-after all, with European
trips and spending sprees financed by Dray, what's there to complain
about? But when gold-digger Judi Ledbetter nets Dray and his fat
wallet, things get tricky. Soon, they're married, Judi gets pregnant,
and she's gunning to drive AJ out of Dray's life permanently.
Blackmail, intrigue and double-crosses round out this fun little romp. (Jan.)

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- Serena Williams
routed Dinara Safina 6-0, 6-3 Saturday to win the Australian Open for
her 10th Grand Slam title and a return to the No. 1 ranking.It
was total domination for the second-seeded Williams, who looked at ease
in winning back-to-back majors -- she won the U.S. Open championship in
September -- and was moving fluidly on the court.''I absolutely,
clearly, love playing here,'' the 27-year-old Williams said. ''You guys
root for me so much. I don't get that everywhere. So thank you so
much.''Williams' near-perfect performance was in sharp contrast
to No. 3 Safina, who was tight from the start. Later apologizing to the
crowd for her performance, Safina said Williams was just too good,
leaving her feeling like a ballboy.In the first game, Safina
double-faulted three times, including on break point. Williams ran off
18 of the last 20 points in the first set to finish it in 22 minutes.Other
than matches that ended early due to illness or injury, it was the most
lopsided Australian Open women's final since 1962, when Margaret Smith
beat Jan Lehane 6-0, 6-2.It was Williams' second overwhelming
victory in a final at Melbourne Park, where she kept alive her record
of winning in odd-numbered years since 2003 for four titles. Coming
into the 2007 tournament unseeded after being plagued by injuries the
year before, she beat top-seeded Maria Sharapova 6-1, 6-2.Sharapova rebounded to win last year but was unable to defend her title while recuperating from a shoulder injury.Williams
became the fifth woman to win four or more Australian titles. By making
the singles and doubles finals, she already had become the all-time
leading money winner in women's sports.For winning the Australian singles title, she earned $1.3 million and has career earnings of more than $23.5 million.After
Melbourne's hottest three-day heat wave on record, conditions were
nearly perfect for the tournament's first women's final at night, but
Rod Laver Arena was less than capacity, with large patches of empty
seats scattered around the upper deck of the 15,000-seat stadium. SOURCE:NYT.COM

January 30, 2009

(01-30) 17:47 PST Oakland --
The 12th Street BART station in Oakland was shut down for five minutes
this afternoon because of a nearby protest by people angry about the
shooting of Oscar Grant by BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle.The few dozen protesters, organized by the advocacy group Act Now to
Stop War and End Racism, gathered at the courthouse for today's bail
hearing for Mehserle where his bail was set at $3 million.Protesters carried signs reading "Jail Racist Killer Cops" and
"Justice for Oscar Grant," and several of them said they were angry
bail was granted.Christopher Cantor, a protester who said he's a post-doctoral
researcher at UC-Berkeley, called the entire matter "a cover-up," and
said he was especially angry to learn that BART police had not radioed
in news of Grant's shooting that night."I'm out here because I'm p-- off," Cantor said. "Without a shadow of a doubt, what has been going on out here is messed up."Cleavon Gilman, another protester who said he's an Iraq War veteran
and an undergraduate at UC-Berkeley, said the protest was about police
brutality in general."These police officers just kill any person they want to," he said. "I mean, we need police officers, but good ones."The group marched though downtown Oakland, prompting BART to shutter the 12th Street station out of precaution."We didn't know what was going to happen," said BART spokesman Linton Johnson.The group stopped at a McDonalds parking lot at 14th and Jackson,
and police wearing riot gear told them that if they didn't disperse
they'd be arrested for unlawful assembly. Johnson said that at some
point during the protest, Oakland police fired non-lethal shots into
the crowd. There were several arrests, though the exact number is not
known. Oakland police have not returned a call for comment.The group then began marching down 14th Street, stopping at
Broadway. By about 5 p.m., there were far more police officers than
protesters. SOURCE:SFGATE.COM

(01-30) 16:57 PST Oakland -- The 12th Street BART station in Oakland was shut down for five minutes this afternoon because of a nearby protest by people who attended the bail hearing for former BART officer Johannes Mehserle, who shot and killed Oscar Grant on New Years Day.bail was set at $3 million and the few dozen protesters were organized by the advocacy group Act Now to Stop War and End Racism. They carried signs reading "Jail Racist Killer Cops" and "Justice for Oscar Grant." They then marched though downtown Oakland, prompting BART to shutter the 12th Street station out of precaution. "We didn't know what was going to happen," said BART spokesman Linton Johnson. The group stopped at a McDonald's parking lot at 14th and Jackson, and police wearing riot gear told them that if they didn't disperse they'd be arrested for unlawful assembly. Johnson said that at some point during the protest, Oakland police fired non-lethal shots into the crowd. Oakland police have not returned a call for comment. The group then began marching down 14th Street, stopping at Broadway.

(01-30) 15:31 PST OAKLAND -- Former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle declared that he was going to fire his Taser stun gun, not his pistol, just before he shot an unarmed man he was trying to arrest early New Year's Day at an Oakland station, his attorney argued in persuading a judge today to set bail in Mehserle's murder case. Attorney Michael Rains wrote in a court document that a second BART officer, Tony Pirone, reported hearing Mehserle say just before shooting Oscar Grant, "I'm going to tase him, I'm going to tase him." Afterward, Mehserle said he thought Grant had been reaching for a gun, Rains wrote. Rains gave the account in a motion asking Judge Morris Jacobson to release Mehserle on bail while the former officer defends himself against murder charges. Jacobson agreed to set bail at $3 million, even as he expressed deep skepticism about the account in Rains' motion. After a one-hour hearing in Alameda County Superior Court, Jacobson said Mehserle "has a willingness to add to the story, to change the story, to make up something that's not true to avoid consequences." It was not immediately clear whether Mehserle would be able to post bail and be released from Santa Rita Jail. Before the hearing, Rains said Mehserle could not afford a high bail but that his parents might be able to put up the money. Mehserle, dressed in a jail-issue jumpsuit, attended the hearing but did not speak. The legal filing by Rains does not specifically give Mehserle's explanation for the shooting at Fruitvale Station, which happened as he and other officers were trying to arrest Grant for resisting an officer. Instead, it quotes statements that several other officers and witnesses gave to authorities and refers to evidence from the scene. Still, it marks the first time that Mehserle's attorneys have indicated what his defense could be at a trial. Rains wrote that "the bulk of the discovery, including witness and officer statements, seem to indicate that this young officer, who carried a Taser for only a few shifts prior to this event, may have mistakenly deployed his service pistol rather than his Taser, thus negating any criminal intent." The prosecutor in the case, John Creighton, questioned whether that account made sense. Creighton noted that the defense attorney quotes Pirone as saying after the shooting that Mehserle approached him and said, "Tony, I thought he was going for a gun.""If he intended to pull his Taser and pulled his service weapon by mistake, why would he say to another officer after the fact, 'I thought he was going for a gun'?" Creighton said. "Why wouldn't he say, "Oh my God, Tony, I meant to pull my Taser,' or something to that effect?"Judge Jacobson also pointed to the reported remark about the gun in questioning whether Mehserle was being honest. The Taser explanation "appears to me to be a change in his story," Jacobson said.Rains' 14-page bail motion asserted that Mehserle is not a danger to the community or a flight risk. But John Burris, an attorney representing Grant's family, said Mehserle should not be released. He said the evidence in the case - including camera footage of the shooting - suggested that the officer meant to fire his gun, not his Taser."That's a defense that's not surprising, as much as it's been talked about," Burris said. "I would only say that, No. 1, the Taser shouldn't have been used, either. There wasn't any basis for that. And No. 2, the facts on the videotape don't support that as an argument. But that has to be presented at trial."Burris said, "The evidence is consistent with murder."Mehserle, 27, and other BART officers had detained the 22-year-old Grant and four of his friends just after 2 a.m. at the Fruitvale Station while investigating reports of a fight onboard a Dublin-Pleasanton train. Two people on the train told police that about 20 people had been involved in what amounted to a "barroom fight," and that the participants were "hammered and stoned," Rains wrote.A BART officer on the platform, identified as J. Woffinden, described the fight suspects as "extremely uncooperative and combative in their verbiage and body language," Rains wrote. Woffinden said that "the scene was chaotic and confusing, due to the loud yelling and physical defiance displayed by the group of males."Grant was shot just after Pirone told him he was under arrest for resisting an officer. Rains quotes Pirone as saying Grant had disobeyed instructions and cursed officers. Grant put up a brief struggle, but was lying face-down, with both hands behind his back, when Mehserle shot him, Oakland police investigators said in a court affidavit. District Attorney Tom Orloff said his office charged Mehserle with murder because the former officer had committed an intentional, unlawful act when he shot Grant. Mehserle declined to talk to criminal investigators. He quit the BART police force Jan. 7 after two years on the job rather than be interviewed by internal affairs inspectors who could have brought a disciplinary case against him. BART said it bought 64 Taser X26 stun guns last year for $62,000, then placed them into service on Sept. 9 after officers did six hours of training. Mehserle shot Grant with his Sig Sauer P226 semiautomatic pistol, BART said. The bail motion gives an account of the moments before the shooting, stating that Grant overheard Pirone tell Mehserle that Grant was under arrest. As a result, Rains wrote, Grant "attempted to stand up, but was forced to the ground face first." Mehserle and Pirone ordered Grant to put his hands behind his back to be handcuffed, but Grant resisted, Rains wrote. Rains quoted Pirone as saying that he tried to help Mehserle by holding Grant's head and shoulders down. According to the motion, "Pirone said he heard Mehserle say, 'Put your hands behind your back, stop resisting, stop resisting, put your hands behind your back.' "Then Mehserle said, 'I'm going to tase him, I'm going to tase him. I can't get his arms. He won't give me his arms. His hands are going for his waistband,' " Rains wrote. "Then Mehserle popped up and said, 'Tony, Tony, get away, back up, back up.' " Rains wrote that several witnesses described Mehserle as looking stunned after he shot Grant. One said Mehserle "had an expression on his face like, 'Holy s-, what happened or what did I do, with his hands around his head,' " the attorney wrote. He added that the witness "believed the officer also had an expression as, 'Why did my gun go off?' " The bail motion also provides some background information on Mehserle. It says he was born in Germany but has lived in the Bay Area since age 4; that he grew interested in police work through a friend who was an officer; and that he plans to marry his girlfriend, who gave birth to the couple's first child Jan. 2. SOURCE:SFGATE.COM

YouTube
and the William Morris Agency, the Hollywood talent agency, are close
to signing a deal that would place the company’s clients in
made-for-the-Web productions.The deal would underscore the ways that distribution models are
evolving on the Internet. Already, some actors and other celebrities
are creating their own content for the Web, bypassing the often arduous
process of developing a program for a television network. The YouTube
deal would give William Morris clients an ownership stake in the videos
they create for the Web site.WASHINGTON — President Obama
branded Wall Street bankers “shameful” on Thursday for giving
themselves nearly $20 billion in bonuses as the economy was
deteriorating and the government was spending billions to bail out some
of the nation’s most prominent financial institutions.“There will be time for them to make profits, and there will be time
for them to get bonuses,” Mr. Obama said during an appearance in the
Oval Office with Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner.
“Now’s not that time. And that’s a message that I intend to send
directly to them, I expect Secretary Geithner to send to them.”WHAT’S a nice economy like ours doing in a place like this? As the
country descends into what is likely to be its worst postwar recession,
Americans are distressed, bewildered and asking serious questions:
Didn’t we learn how to avoid such catastrophes decades ago? Has
American-style capitalism failed us so badly that it needs a radical
overhaul? The answers, I believe, are yes and no. Our capitalist system did
not condemn us to this fate. Instead, it was largely a series of
avoidable — yes, avoidable — human errors. Recognizing and
understanding these errors will help us fix the system so that it
doesn’t malfunction so badly again. And we can do so without ending
capitalism as we know it.My list of errors has six whoppers, in
chronologically order. I omit mistakes that became clear only in
hindsight, limiting myself to those where prominent voices advocated a
different course at the time. Had these six choices been different, I
believe the inevitable bursting of the housing bubble would have caused
far less harm. Just in case the recent flood of depressing economic indicators
hasn't been enough to convey how great this recession really is, the Washington Postleads with more data that came down the pipeline yesterday.
Sales of new homes plunged, 13,000 U.S. jobs were slashed, corporate
earnings went deep in the red, and unemployment increased. The New York Timesleads with President Obama harshly criticizing Wall Street bankers for receiving nearly $20 billion in bonuses last year even as the economy collapsed. "That is the height of irresponsibility," Obama said. "It is shameful."The Wall Street Journal leads its world-wide newsbox with Illinois senators voting unanimously to remove Rod Blagojevich from office. He will now go down in history as the first Illinois governor to be impeached. USA Todayleads with news that the Super Bowl will mark the first time that federal behavior-detection officers
will be used at a major event. The Transportation Security
Administration will be sending dozens of these officers, who normally
work in airports, to join forces with local police and watch for
suspicious behavior among the fans entering the Raymond James Stadium
on Sunday. Civil liberties advocates worry that this sets a dangerous
precedent. "If we're going to use this at high-profile sporting events,
why not start using it on streets?" an ACLU analyst said. The Los Angeles Timesleads with a judge ordering California officials to comply with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's order that state employees take two days off a month without pay. The move would represent "the biggest rollback of the state payroll in decades."To continue reading, click here.

(01-29) 18:10 PST OAKLAND --
BART said Thursday that it will hand off its internal affairs probe of
the fatal police shooting of Oscar Grant to an outside law firm or
public agency in an attempt to bring credibility to the investigation."A lot of people have said they have no faith that the BART Police
Department can police itself," said Carole Ward Allen, a member of the
transit agency's Board of Directors. "By authorizing an independent,
outside investigation, we hope to reassure the public that we are
transparent and accountable."Ward Allen is the chairwoman of the board's Police Department
Review Committee, formed after Officer Johannes Mehserle shot Grant to
death early New Year's Day at the Fruitvale Station in Oakland.Grant, 22, was unarmed and lying on his stomach when Mehserle shot
him. Mehserle, 27, quit the force Jan. 7 rather than speak to internal
affairs investigators, and six days later, prosecutors charged him with
murder.The internal affairs investigation is separate from the criminal
probe, and is aimed at determining whether any other officers at
Fruitvale Station that night should be disciplined. BART has not
decided which firm or agency will take over the probe. BART also will hire a third party to do a top-to-bottom review of its police practices, directors said. SOURCE:SFGATE.COM

01-29) 19:14 PST OAKLAND --
BART's investigation into a police officer's fatal shooting of an
unarmed rider was plagued with problems from the start, a Chronicle
investigation has found.BART police allowed a train full of witnesses to pull out of the
Fruitvale Station in Oakland early New Year's Day after Officer
Johannes Mehserle shot Oscar Grant, then made little effort to contact
the witnesses as they got off at other stations.None of the seven officers at Fruitvale radioed that an
officer-involved shooting had taken place. Supervisors sent to the
Fruitvale Station initially were in the dark, while officers at
stations down the line did not know to expect a train full of witnesses.A key video showing that another officer on the station platform
struck Grant two minutes before he was shot was available to BART, but
police did not start a full investigation into the officer's actions
until a TV station aired the footage Jan. 23.BART has failed to provide basic and important information about the
case to the public, even while promising transparency. The vacuum has
been filled by attorney John Burris, who is seeking $25 million for
Grant's family, and by speculation over amateur video footage broadcast
on television and the Internet.BART's response has been hamstrung by the agency's inability to say
why Grant was shot as he lay facedown - or even if the shooting was
intentional or accidental. BART officials say that is the fault of
Mehserle, who refused to speak to criminal investigators and then quit
before he was forced to talk to BART's internal affairs division. He
has since been charged with murder.Among the information that BART has withheld is that Grant was shot
just after he had been told he was being arrested for resisting an
officer, two sources familiar with the investigation told The
Chronicle. BART has not said what Grant allegedly did to deserve the
arrest.On Thursday, conceding that they had lost the public's confidence in
the investigation, BART officials said they will hire an outside law
firm or public agency to decide whether any additional officers should
be disciplined, a job normally handled by a police department's
internal affairs division."Even if we came to the right conclusion," said Joel Keller, a member of the BART Board of Directors, "there would be mistrust."

Chaos on the platform

BART has not discussed what happened on the Fruitvale Station
platform in detail. But a Chronicle review that draws on documents,
video footage and dozens of interviews paints a picture of a chaotic,
complex scene.About 2 a.m., riders reported a fight as a Dublin-Pleasanton train
left the West Oakland station. Grant, 22, of Hayward, was in the
train's lead car with his friends after a brief New Year's Eve trip to
San Francisco.BART dispatched officers to Fruitvale to intercept the train.
Mehserle, 27, who had been on the BART police force for two years, had
to drive with his partner from the West Oakland station. There, a
teenage boy with a semiautomatic pistol had fled from police and jumped
off the station platform, breaking several bones.Another officer was already at Fruitvale - Tony Pirone, 36, a former
Marine who came to BART four years ago from the police force at the
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. CONTINUE READING...

January 29, 2009

CHICAGO, Jan. 29 -- The Illinois Senate voted unanimously Thursday to remove Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) from office for abuse of power, ending a weeks-long impeachment ordeal that ranged between drama and farce. One by one, Republicans and Democrats stood to call for the governor's ouster, rejecting his last-minute pleas and criticizing him as a liar and a hypocrite before voting in the late afternoon. With that vote, Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn (D), a former running mate who hasn't spoken with the increasingly isolated Blagojevich in 17 months, became Illinois' 41st governor. By a matching 59 to 0 vote, the Senate also voted to bar Blagojevich for life from holding Illinois political office. Blagojevich, who addressed the senators Thursday morning and told them he had done nothing wrong, was already home in Chicago went the votes were tallied. When he arrived home, he changed into running clothes and went for a jog. Earlier in the day, the House prosecutor summed up the case against the governor, saying that "the pattern of abuse of power is unmistakable" and Blagojevich should be removed from office. Blagojevich defended his actions shortly after Ellis finished, criticizing the proceedings as "a rush to judgment and an evisceration of the presumption of innocence." "There was never a conversation where I intended to break any law," Blagojevich said. "I'm appealing to you and your sense of fairness." "How can you throw a governor out of office on a criminal complaint and you haven't been able to show or to prove any criminal activity?" Blagojevich asked. "The evidence showed that throughout his tenure as governor, the governor has abused the power of his office and put his own interests above the interests of the people," David Ellis told the 59 senators. "Which interests?" Ellis asked, quoting Blagojevich's own words as captured on secret FBI tape recordings. "Legal. Personal. Political."SOURCE:WASHINGTON POST.COM

Early on in his presidential campaign, in March 2007, then-Sen.
Barack Obama spoke to a congregation at Brown Chapel in Selma, Ala., to
commemorate the 1965 voting rights march. In front of civil rights
pioneers, including Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., and the Rev. Joseph Lowery,
Obama gave a stirring address on the tension between what he called the
Moses and Joshua generations.Noting that the Moses generation steered his generation "90 percent
of the way there," Obama said, "So the question, I guess, that I have
today is what's called of us in this Joshua generation? What do we do
in order to fulfill that legacy; to fulfill the obligations and the
debt that we owe to those who allowed us to be here today?"That question is at the heart of "A Song for Coretta," a sharp,
funny play about Coretta Scott King, widow of the Rev. Martin Luther
King Jr., written by Pearl Cleage and being performed at Brava's
intimate 2nd Stage. The play takes a sharp turn in the final third,
becoming as heavy-handed as it had been nuanced at the start, but the
all-female cast is gripping until the end.The action jumps between various points in King's life and the
interactions of a few strangers waiting in line to get into her 2006
memorial service; the actors play dual roles.At first, there's only Helen (Marjorie Crump-Shears), a proper
churchgoing lady who actually met King, and Zora (Shanique S. Scott), a
striving journalism student recording people in line for what she hopes
will be a story on National Public Radio. Their exchange draws out one
of Helen's primary concerns: the decline of values among youths today.
She, as part of the Moses generation, has no patience for the Joshuas
who don't seem to know or care about their history.Enter Mona Lisa (Khamara Pettus), a Hurricane Katrina survivor who
drove up to King's funeral on a whim and had the good sense to pack
some "cheap bourbon" for the wait. She's an artist who lives in her
car, someone who fell through the cracks after the cameras moved on
from New Orleans.She is soon joined by Keisha (a standout performance by Ashanna
Andrews), a seemingly vacant girl from the neighborhood who riles Helen
immediately. The look of disgust on Helen's face pretty much says it
all, as Keisha sticks her fingers into an empty bag of potato chips,
digs around, licks her fingertips and then casts the bag onto the
ground. Late in the play, Iraq war veteran Gwen (Jocelyn Truitt) joins
the bunch, with a horrific story to tell.As "A Song for Coretta" shows, the legacy of King is bittersweet:
The movement's successes seem as hard to bear as its failures. However,
this work, conceived as a memorial to King, brings a measure of hope.It's the little pieces of conversation in which the generations meet
and begin to understand each other - more than the bombastic ending -
that are the most moving. As Obama noted, Moses may have brought the
people up to the edge of the promised land, but it was Joshua who
actually led them over. It's time for the Keisha generation to rise. SOURCE:SFGATE.COM

Worsening economic conditions and the changing habits of Americans are
threatening to do to the U.S. Postal Service what neither snow, nor
rain, nor gloom of night could: stop delivery of the mail, at least for
one day a week.In testimony before a Senate subcommittee yesterday, Postmaster General
John E. Potter said the post office may be forced to cut back to
five-day delivery for the first time in the agency's history, citing
rising costs and an ongoing decline in mail made worse by the global
recession. The potential move, which would have to be approved by
Congress and postal officials, could mean the elimination of mail on
either Saturdays or Tuesdays, the system's slowest days, postal
officials said."It is possible that the cost of six-day delivery may simply prove
to be unaffordable," Potter said, adding that the agency may face a
deficit of more than $6 billion in the current fiscal year. "I do not
make this request lightly, but I am forced to consider every option,
given the severity of our challenge."The prospect of a shortened delivery week marks the latest setback
for the storied post office, which was founded in 1775 with Benjamin
Franklin serving as the first postmaster general. It ranks as one of
the nation's largest employers, with about 700,000 career employees.An iconic staple of American life, the post office has been buffeted
for decades by shifting cultural and economic challenges and has
struggled to modernize its operations. Independent delivery companies
such as FedEx have taken over much of the upper-end delivery market,
while e-mail and Internet bill-paying services have decreased
first-class mail volume. The one bright spot has been third-class
advertising mail -- recently renamed "standard mail" -- but that market
has also dropped off because of the economy."A lot of people look for the postman every day," said A. Lee
Fritschler, a former chairman of the Postal Regulatory Commission and a
public policy professor at George Mason University. "The Postal Service
will tell you that they are a community service. . . . I think a lot of
people will wonder what happened to their mail on Tuesday or Saturday
if it doesn't come anymore."The number of items the post office delivered last year dropped by
more than 9 billion, to 202 billion items, marking the largest annual
decrease in history, officials said. The current fiscal year could also
be the first time since 1946 that the amount of money collected by the
Postal Service declines from the year before, Potter said. CONTINUE READING...

The House approved the $819 billion stimulus package, but President
Obama's efforts to bring Republicans to his side didn't pay off. The
bill passed without a single Republican vote, and 11 Democrats also
opposed the measure. The Los Angeles Timesdeclares that the package is "the largest attempt since World War II to use the federal budget to redirect the course of the nation's economy." The Washington Postspecifies that the price tag is larger "than the combined total cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan so far," and the Wall Street Journal points out the cost of the bill is "almost equal to the entire cost of annual federal spending under Congress's discretion."The New York Timesnotes that the lack of Republican support
for the bill "seemed to echo the early months of the last Democratic
administration, when President Bill Clinton in 1993 had to rely solely
on Democrats to win passage of a deficit-reduction bill that was a
signature element of his presidency." But USA Todaysays that "Obama's chance of winning GOP Senate votes next week is better." Indeed, Obama suggested that he will welcome changes
to the bill in the Senate that might attract more support from
Republicans. And a few Republicans hinted that they might support the
final version of the bill if some changes are implemented in the
Senate, suggesting the unanimous voting was a tactic to get Democrats
to pay attention to their demands. To continue reading, click here.

January 28, 2009

All the papers give front-page play to the massive economic stimulus
package that will come up for a vote in the House today, which USA Todaysays is President Obama's
"first test of the bipartisanship he pledged in his campaign." Obama
visited Capitol Hill yesterday to urge Republican lawmakers to support
the $825 billion stimulus plan, but most Republicans are still
unconvinced even as they were careful to praise the president for
listening to their concerns. The New York Timesgoes with a two-story lead examining the stimulus package's effect on education as well as a look at how the bill would provide Democrats a fast-track way to fund many initiatives that have long been priorities for the party. The Wall Street Journal points out that the Senate version of the bill is now getting close to reaching the $900 billion mark. The Washington Postleads with a look at how Obama's advisers are discussing several options to prop up the nation's financial system.
They're all bound to be unpopular and, as a bonus, there's absolutely
no guarantee that any of them will work. It seems the White House will
try a combination of several programs instead of hoping that one plan
provides the magic touch, which raises the risk that the response will
be seen as haphazard. None of the ideas being discussed are new: a
federal protection against losses backed by mortgages and loans, a new
institution to buy up toxic assets, and an injection of taxpayer money
into troubled firms in exchange for ownership, which could result in
"nationalization in all but name." The Los Angeles Timesleads with data that show more than 236,000 homes went into foreclosure
in California last year, which is more than the previous nine years
combined, and a record 404,000 borrowers defaulted on their payments.
While previous foreclosures could mostly be blamed on people who took
on mortgages they couldn't afford, now it looks like many of those who
are defaulting are doing so because of the loss of a job or income in a
state that now has 9.3 percent unemployment.To continue reading, click here.

(January 28, 2009 - Brooklyn, NY) Mental for Dilla beats? We got you covered. Hot on the still-smokin' heels of Illa J's debut album Yancey Boys, comes...Yancey Boys - Instrumentals. Thirteen beats created by the one and only James Yancey (aka Jay Dee aka J Dilla).
Raw uncut Jay Dee goodness, heard first on Illa J's debut album Yancey
Boys. These beats date from 1995-98, created during Jay Dee's tenure at
Delicious Vinyl including his work on the Pharcyde's sophomore LP, Labcabincalifornia.
Madly prolific, Jay Dee left these previously untouched beats behind.
They were in the Delicious Vinyl vault for a whopping thirteen years
before, in a case of manifest destiny, Dilla's younger brother John
"Illa J" Yancey added his vocals to them to make the album Yancey Boys. Now fans can get the raw material that Illa J worked with. From "We Here"'s kraut-tastic sizzle to the bumpadelic rumpus of "R U Listenin'.” From the dusted satin of "Sounds Like Love" to the torqued out dreamscape of "All Good,”
these beats are all keepers. They’re available on your favorite format
(double vinyl LP, CD, or digital download) online an in stores
everywhere. As an added bonus, San Francisco's DJ King Most (www.myspace.com/kingmost) whipped up a Mega Mix of the instrumentals: http://media.audibletreats.com/King-Most-Yancey_Boys_Instrumental_Megamix.mp3.

WASHINGTON — Without a single Republican vote, President Obama
won House approval on Wednesday for an $819 billion economic recovery
plan as Congressional Democrats sought to temper their own differences
over the enormous package of tax cuts and spending.As a piece of legislation, the two-year package is among the biggest
in history, reflecting a broad view in Congress that urgent fiscal help
is needed for an economy in crisis, at a time when the Federal Reserve
has already cut interest rates almost to zero.But the size and substance of the stimulus package remain in dispute, as House Republicans argued that it tilted heavily toward new spending instead of tax cuts.All
but 11 Democrats voted for the plan, and 177 Republicans voted against
it. The 244-to-188 vote came a day after Mr. Obama traveled to Capitol
Hill to seek Republican backing, if not for the package then on other
issues to come.Mr. Obama, in a statement hailing the House
passage of the plan, did not take note of the partisan divide but
signaled that he expected changes to be made in the Senate that might
attract support.“I hope that we can continue to strengthen this
plan before it gets to my desk,” he said. “But what we can’t do is drag
our feet or allow the same partisan differences to get in our way. We
must move swiftly and boldly to put Americans back to work, and that is
exactly what this plan begins to do.”Mr. Obama followed the
House vote with a cocktail party at the White House for the
Congressional leaders of both parties, from the House and the Senate.
The House Republicans, including the minority leader, Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, were fresh from their votes against the recovery package.The
failure to win Republican support in the House seemed to echo the early
months of the last Democratic administration, when President Bill Clinton
in 1993 had to rely solely on Democrats to win passage of a
deficit-reduction bill that was a signature element of his presidency. Mr. Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel,
had met Tuesday night at the White House with 11 moderate House
Republicans, none of whom ended up supporting the bill. “The most
important number here for this recovery plan is how many jobs it
produces, not how many votes it gets,” Mr. Emanuel said. CONTINUE READING...

[New York, NY] – Still gleaming over her five Grammy
Awards nominations, including a nod for “Best New Artist,”singer/songwriter
Jazmine Sullivan is set to join fellow Grammy nominee Ne-Yo on
a 16-city tour beginning
February 5th in Las Vegas (full tour itinerary
below). This is the
second outing for Sullivan, who has received rave reviews as the opening act on
the recently sold-out Maxwell tour. Jazmine’s third single,
“Lions, Tigers and Bears” from her J Records’ Grammy nominated debut
album Fearless, is already a Top 20
Urban single and rapidly climbing the charts since its January 12th
impact at radio. The
Syndrome-directed video for the single embodies the essence of Victor Fleming’s
1939 film “The Wizard of Oz,” mixed beautifully into a contemporary pop-art
backdrop. The video will premiere January 29th exclusively on
Myspace. Click here for a sneak peek of the video! After ringing in 2009
with killer performances on BET’s 106 & Party New Year’s Eve Special,
Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson and BET’s Inaugural Ball, Jazmine will
perform on Good Morning America
on February 2nd and Jimmy Kimmel Live on
February 6th. Jazmine will
also be featured in Katie Couric’s All
Access Grammy Special airing February 4th on CBS. Topping several “Best of
2008” lists, including Rolling Stone, USA Today and Associated
Press, Jazmine is the most nominated debut artist (and ties with Alison
Kraus as the most nominated female artist) vying in the upcoming 51st
Grammy Awards. Jazmine’s soulful singing and writing style has earned her
5 Grammy nominations, including the coveted “Best New Artist” category;
“Best
Contemporary R&B Album” for Fearless; “Best R&B Song” for “Bust
Your Windows;” “Best Female R&B Vocal Performance” for “Need U Bad;” and
“Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance” for “In Love with Another Man.”

NEW YORK -- Wells Fargo & Co. said today that it swung to a $2.83
billion loss in the fourth quarter as it took significant charges to
reduce its exposure to the risky assets of Wachovia Corp. and built up
its reserves to cover future losses. For the final three months of the year, the San Francisco-based
bank reported a net loss of 79 cents per share, after paying preferred
dividends. This compares with earnings of $1.36 billion, or 41 cents
per share, a year earlier. The results included
several one-time items, including $5.6 billion, or 99 cents per share,
of credit reserve build to cover future loan losses. This includes $3.9
billion, or 69 cents per share, to conform Wachovia's reserve build
practices to its own. The results also included a write-down of $473 million on Wells
Fargo's securities portfolio and $413 million of write-downs on other
loans. The bank also took $294 million, or 5 cents per share, of losses
related to the Bernard Madoff fraud, and a $74 million charge related
to merger and integration costs. During the quarter, Wells Fargo aggressively reduced risk on
Wachovia's balance sheet. The bank took a write-down of $37.2 billion
related to high-risk loans in Wachovia's loan portfolio, which reduces
the need for future loan loss provisions, Wells Fargo said. Wells Fargo's board has announced a dividend of
34 cents per share. Many other banks have had to slice or eliminate
their dividends as they work to shore up capital. Analysts have
speculated that Wells Fargo may need to reduce its dividend sometime
this year. The bank also said it has no plans to request additional capital
from the government under the Treasury Department's capital purchase
program. Last fall, Wells Fargo received a $25 billion investment from
the Treasury under the government's $700 billion financial bailout
package. Under the plan, the government has pumped $250 billion into
banks through preferred stock purchases in an effort to spur
more-normal lending. But both Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc.
have required additional investments from the government as they
struggle to offset rising loan losses. For the full year, Wells Fargo earned $2.84 billion, or 75 cents
per share, compared with $8.06 billion, or $2.38 per share, in 2007. SOURCE:LAT.COM

WASHINGTON — President Obama made a campaign trip of sorts on Tuesday to seek bipartisan support for his economic stimulus plan,
visiting Republicans on Capitol Hill and suggesting that he was open to
some limited revisions that would address their demands for more tax
cuts.In a session with House Republicans, Mr. Obama said he would not
compromise on a central element of his plan that has drawn particular
Republican opposition: his campaign promise for a middle-class tax
credit that would also go to low-wage workers who earn too little to
pay income taxes but are subject to payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare.
Most Republicans oppose granting such credits to people who do not pay
federal income taxes, saying they then amount to a welfare payment.But,
Republicans interviewed after the meeting said, Mr. Obama told them he
would listen to proposals to expand on provisions cutting taxes for
small businesses and would be open to corporate tax cuts as well if
Republicans cooperated to close tax loopholes for big business.Democrats said Mr. Obama could also support a demand from a senior Senate Republican, Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, to add a provision adjusting the alternative minimum tax
so that it does not hit millions of middle-class taxpayers this year.
That would add costs of nearly $70 billion over 10 years to a package
that Republicans already say is too big.Several hours after Mr.
Obama’s visit to the Capitol, the Senate Finance Committee approved Mr.
Grassley’s proposal as an amendment to the emerging Senate economic
recovery plan. The full Senate is expected to take up a stimulus bill
next week, following the expected passage of the $825 billion House
version on Wednesday.The White House encouraged other gestures
as well. As the House version of the legislation came to the floor on
Tuesday, Democrats stripped from it a provision that Republicans had
ridiculed as having nothing to do with economic stimulus, one expanding
federal Medicaid coverage of family planning services. (The Congressional Budget Office
had estimated that the provision would actually save the government
$200 million over five years by reducing pregnancy and postnatal-care
expenses.)Trying to forestall other Republican attacks,
Democrats also stripped out $200 million for restoring the National
Mall, another provision that the minority had mocked.Both parties expect a vote largely along party lines in the House on
Wednesday. They say the degree to which the legislation can win any
real bipartisan support will depend on what happens in the Senate,
where the measure could be altered to attract at least some moderate
Republicans. SOURCE:NYT.COM

Oakland Police Chief Wayne Tucker, whose department has been rocked by
controversy, said Tuesday that he will resign next month and blasted
the City Council for paying "lip service to their commitment to public
safety." Tucker, 65, said at a news conference at Oakland City Hall that he
will step down Feb. 28 after serving more than four years as chief. He
stressed that he has not been fired - nor has he been asked to resign -
but that he is leaving because that is what is best for the city and
that "quite frankly, I've lost faith in this council." "I think when the council and the chief of police, regardless of
who's making the decision, are finding themselves with irreconcilable
differences, that it's time for one of them to go, and I've chosen
myself to be the one to go," Tucker said. He made the announcement hours before four City Council members
prepared to discuss their plans to hold a vote of no confidence in
Tucker, citing spiraling violent crime, a below-average rate of crimes
solved and a stream of negative publicity. Tucker described the
council's criticism of him as "for the most part inaccurate." The leaders of the proposal, Council President Jane Brunner and
members Larry Reid, Desley Brooks and Pat Kernighan, called off their
news conference after Tucker's announcement. The chief, whose salary is $205,000, serves at the pleasure of
Mayor Ron Dellums. The mayor said he accepted Tucker's resignation with
regret and that an interim police chief will run the department after
Tucker leaves. Dellums did not say who that will be or how the chief
will be selected. Dellums praised Tucker's work in overseeing changes in the
department in the wake of the "Riders" scandal. In that case, several
officers were acquitted of criminal charges that they had planted
evidence and beat suspects in West Oakland in 2000, but the city paid a
$10.5 million civil settlement and agreed to implement reforms under
the supervision of a federal judge. "If history is recorded correctly, Chief Tucker has been an
instrument of change moving forward, has been committed to reforms in
the Oakland Police Department, has been respectful of the role of the
courts in moving that mandate forward. Many of the changes that now
have taken place have moved Oakland well forward in a very dramatic
way," Dellums said.SOURCE:SFGATE.COM

September 2012

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